Prangs in L-test soar

THERE were 510 crashes dur­ing driv­ing tests in 2016, a 25 per cent an­nual rise.

Fig­ures also re­veal that women are more likely than men to flunk the 40-minute as­sess­ment af­ter botch­ing their re­verse park­ing.

But men fail more fre­quently for speed­ing.

The ti­tle of worst learner driver was shared by a man and woman who clocked 12 ma­jor faults each, any one of which could be a fail.

The Driver and Ve­hi­cle Stan­dards Agency fig­ures come be­fore changes in De­cem­ber, when re­vers­ing around a cor­ner and three­p­oint turns will be axed.

AA pres­i­dent Ed­mund King said: “The im­por­tant thing is to en­sure driv­ers learn at their own pace and sub­mit for test only when their in­struc­tor and they feel they are con­fi­dent and com­pe­tent to do so.”